Expert: Jessica Bryan - 12/4/2009

Question
Hi,

my name is Anatoly and I am from Ukraine. I did not find a proper category for my inquiry, neither I can find solution in my national environment, and this is why I decided to contact professionals to help me understand the problem better.

All estates and buildings are located in definite places, which we call administrative units and territories, i.e. every house has an address which has to be obligatory associated with a definite legal territory.

Some 5-6 years ago we started preparations for privatisation of the former state-owned appartment in a 4-family house. This is a normal legal procedure stipulated by the ex-USSR and Ukrainian laws. In practice it requires to give an application to the local authorities with indication of your residential address. This address is an exremely important category for an ex- Soviet Empire citizen, interlaced with the residence registration stamp in the passport. Sometimes when people want to kniw the residential address, they just say: O.K, let's see what is written in your passport, and there it is. But in practice our family encountered a very sad case of total loss of control over the real residence location.


Our house stands on the territiory which formerly was known as a village settlement. This village has a long history, and officially the village was located in the administrative region (Rayon), which belonged to a higher entity, called Oblast. This was in strict coordination with the existing law of the territorial division in the former USSR. It is used everywhere in all the former USSR countries, like Russia, Belorus, etc.

In the former USSR times a person could get an appartment only by the official order issued by the estate owner. Our father received such order where it is exactly written: the name of the village, house and appartment number. Thus everyone in our family had an official registration in the USSR, which was the main basis for citizenship. We lived happily even not paying attention to some radical changes in the street name, house and appartment number. In the former Soviet Empire you could never get an answer. The authoritie could do absolutely everything they wanted. The registration process is effectuated by specific personnel under the auspice of the Ministry of the Internal Affairs, they have an exclusive privilege to put such stamps into passports of the citizens,  and it is very important for every person to make this registration as soon a spossible, otherwise the person is going to have problems, even get to prison. Meanwhile this procedure is not fixed by any law, and in favct Ministry of The Internal says that they have no relation to this.  Thus by the time of the fall of the regime and birth of the new independent Ukraine we had absolutely non-relevant stamps in the passports and address data.

Making  decision about privatisation is very important and thus as long as we knew about previous inconsistencies with our address, we started looking into documents, trying to analyze the location and limits of our future property. Since then for many years we are having numerous contacts with the authorites od all types, rrquiring documents. We have such questions – we have a definite name of the village and flat number, which does not correspond to actual data given in our passport. They say – the village had been incorporated into the territory of another bigger village (to the west), and later – taken from this bigger village to a new city (to the east). During these stages the numbering of houses in our street was first made from the western side (from another village), and after the last junction – from the eastern side (from the city). After this no one can tell for sure where is the initial number of the house. They changed the numbers of the appartments , and we had been registered conseqently in all possible appartments of our house (from 1 to 4). After that we are having appartment no.1 located on the second floor and appartment 4 is on the ground floor, and we had previously appartment 3 on the second floor. The house number changed similarly – we had initial house number 108-A, then we had been registered in house 108 (having residence in appartments 2, 3 and 4 in different periods), and then it became 164.  It is a matter of fact that we have serious doubts about what in fact we are going to privatize. The authorities say that house 108-A never existed. The authorities say that the house number 164 (we are registered officially in this house) is on the territory of the city. The authorities show no documental proofs of these facts. As we had been informed the city authorities say that only a part of our building of our house belongs to the city property (rural district). As for the pice of land it is standing on that land belongs to the village disctrict. No documents, too. And to make the things worse, recently e have had a meeting with a person who says that they own the house and the flat we are living in.

At the moment we are at a complete loss what to do. The city and Oblast authorities pay no attention to this problem. The police does not want to interfere (they cannot make any protocol as the territiory is undefined). The President, Government and The Supreme legiclastive organ just return our lettters to the Oblast, and fron there it goes to the city authorities who deny our implications and say that everyting is legal and just, and the problem is we do not want to  privitize the apparatment where we had been registered.

In fact we are living in the same place which corresponds to initial order of settlement. Butfofficially we had been registered in a, say, virtual house, belonging to third parties. And the authorities force us to make privatization,  this will completely delete their responsibilties for the state control of the privatization, and then we shall be forced with the real owners of the appartment who have all necessary papers prepared long ago before the split of thre USSR.

We are in the middle of the big swindle, and we do not want to be like thousands of other citizens who lost their property in similar situations.

Can anyone gice us advice on how to proceed, I understand that this is not a usual topic  for  non-Ukrainian residents, but still such problem exists. What would you do in this situation – leave your appartment and buy a new, legal one. Or sue someone properly.

I shall give any additional information, including copies of the documents.

Thank you for your advice.


Answer
Dear Anatoly;
Thank you for your very interesting question;
Of course I don't have any experience with your particular issue but can certainly relate over anything that creates a problem due to government red tape and inconsistencies.   Your situation does not sound good nor does it sound like it will have a good outcome.  It requires too many small government officials to break protocol and that is a difficult thing for a government worker to do!  Might I suggest that you consult an attorney?  I don't know if there are housing services in your country but if there is any legal aid or housing authority expert who can help you cut through all of the red tape that might also help.  If your other option is to easily buy another home that is elsewhere I might be tempted to take the easy way out and do that.  I don't know what the economic consequences might be for you but you offered that as a solution and it sounds like the only clear one.  However, there is one more solution you might try...I have often learned that persistence is rewarding.  Too many people give up after a while and therefore they abandon following their dream or making a change.  If you are dedicated to making this happen keep making a nice nuisance of yourself.  By this I mean; be respectful and polite.  Be friendly to each and every government employee you encounter.  Get them to like you and want to help you.  Call them daily.  Keep asking for their help until they want to do anything they can to get rid of you and get back to work.  Most often I find that people who do this get a resolution to their problem by wearing down the opposition.  It is called "Killing with kindness!"  No matter what the answer you are given is, just say politely, "Thank you...I understand...but...who could you speak to to help me with this?"  Or..."Who is it that makes this type of decision..." or "who could help me change this?"  You can also keep asking this person, "Can you help me?  Could you check with someone?" Until the person either takes the time to talk to someone higher up or refers you to them.  You will eventually get to someone who is empowered to make these decisions.

One other idea...If this is something that has happened or is happening to others as well, try setting up a blog or helpline either by posting announcements of meetings or on the Internet.  Get a larger group together.  (There is power in numbers). Once you are a large enough group (even if your problems aren't exactly the same but similar issues) the authorities are likely to take notice.

I am so sorry for your unfortunate circumstance and want to wish you all the best in a rapid solution.  If I were your agent, I know that I would quickly get involved in trying to fight for you!  I love good 'causes' and this seems to be a great one.  Please let me know how this works out for you.

Best of luck,
Jessica Bryan
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
USA